Is This Life as We Know It?
by MockingjayHallow7
Summary: Olivia Jones has grown up thinking she was nothing but ordinary, overshadowed by others' achievements. That is until her 6th year at Hogwarts when she really discovers who she is and what she is capable of.
1. Chapter 1: Welcome

**Disclaimer:** Characters and universe is property of J.K. Rowling.

A/N: Hello all, hope you enjoy the first chapter of my newest project, a next generation story featuring James S. Potter and an OC (Olivia Jones). Hopefully get the second chapter up relatively soon, but please let me know what you think so far!

P.S. The Cursed Child does not apply to this story, as far as I'm aware the rest is canon.

* * *

 _Chapter 1: Welcome_

I examined the figure I saw in front of me, she looked very typical and plain; dark blue eyes, monotoned brown hair that fell just below her shoulders, a relatively slim figure but with some curves around her waist and hips. She was someone you would pass on the street and not really notice, but when you looked at her I suppose she was quite pretty in a very ordinary way; nothing particularly special about her but also nothing particularly bad about her either.

With one final look in the mirror, I picked up my backpack and slug it over my right shoulder and turned to the door to head downstairs. At the door, I looked back into my room and checked that I hadn't left anything important behind me, nor left any mess behind; satisfied that I hadn't, I closed the door and made my way down to my mother in the kitchen.

"Good morning love, are you all packed up and ready to go?" My mum greeted me. She smiled at me as she awaited my reply, my mum has that kind of face that when she smiles she not only does so with her mouth, but her whole face seems to smile too. I had inherited my dark blue eyes from her and shared her rounded full cheeks and figure, but her hair was more of an auburn colour and her nose was slightly longer and more elegant than mine, which was a bit too short and wide to fit my face properly.

"Yes I think so, nothing else that I can think of has to get packed," I replied as I grabbed my bottle of water from countertop. "Has dad packed the car?" I asked.

"He has indeed, your brothers are already in the backseat, let's head out so you're not late or you'll miss the train." My mum said as she ushered me out of the house and onto the driveway.

I could already see that my brothers were bickering about something in the back of the car with my dad looking exasperated at the pair already. No wonder my dad is going bald with the three of us to deal with, I don't think he had quite anticipated that his life would turn out like this when he met my mother 20 years ago. He turned to look at my mother and I as we walked down the hill to his car, he smiled tight lipped and rolled his eyes at my brothers. His eyes were blue like mine, but his were a lot paler than mine and mum's, and instead more closely resembled Ali and Jack's.

As I approached the car, Jack jumped out of the drivers side to allow me to sit in the middle seat. I frowned and folded my arms across my chest,

"I don't want to sit in the middle, the youngest should be the one to sit in the middle." I complained as I poked him in the chest, Jack just rolled his eyes and shoved me into the backseat.

"Perhaps, but when the youngest is actually half a foot taller than you, it would be more logical to put the smallest one in the middle." He replied with a cheeky grin. Despite my annoyance, I couldn't argue with that logic, Jack may be 17 months younger than me but was most definitely taller and generally bigger in stature than myself. To save any arguments and to ensure we made it to the train on time, I resigned myself to sitting in the middle for our 20 minute drive to the station.

Looking at the three of us in the backseat of dad's car, it wasn't hard to tell that we were related. We all had the same dark brown hair we got from dad (before he went bald) and we seemed to share similar facial features, with Ali's face being slightly rounder compared to mine and Jack's being slightly longer. While we were very similar appearance wise, the same couldn't be said for our personalities; Ali, the eldest, was the clever, over-achieving one in the family and was head boy this year, he already had a potential job line up with the ministry post-graduation and fit in very well with his fellow Ravenclaw's. Jack on the converse was the Quidditch star of the family, he joined Gryffindor Quidditch team in his second year as a reserve and played last year on their main team. I was the middle child and there was nothing exceptional to be said about me, I was good in class but not excellent, I was friendly with many people but not in a popular way and while I could play Quidditch to a certain extent, it wasn't something I was known for. Sometimes I felt as though I didn't fit in with my fellow Gryffindors, but I guess the sorting hat saw something in me that I couldn't see in myself.

The ride to the station was relatively uneventful with the only excitement coming from Hoggart, the family owl, who suddenly began screeching at Ali as he almost dropped him when dad hit a pothole in the road.

"Jeez, I am certainly not going to miss having that bird around, it does nothing but make noise and mess, it's almost like having another child!" My dad joked as we looked for a parking space near the station.

"You should be grateful that you never met the owl I had at Hogwarts, he was ten times more noisy and messy that Hoggart," my mum laughed.

"I still don't understand your lot, using owls as a way of communicating. I'm honestly surprised the neighbours don't call the police on us with the amount of times that bloody owl flies around our house." Dad said as she shook his head with exasperation but with a hint of a smile behind his frown.

Mum clasped her hands around his and just laughed,

"Honestly, I thought you would have been used to it after all these years."

He just looked at her and smiled, then kissed the back of her hand that was still covering his.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to everything in your world," he laughed.

It was always interesting to observe the interaction between my parents as they discussed the differences in the worlds they grew up in. Mum is a witch and grew up with two magical parents while dad is a muggle and had never known anything about magic until mum told him all those years ago. As such, we never really grew up with much magic in the house and never even heard about Hogwarts until Ali was 10 (I was 9 and Jack, 7) and mum decided that we should make our own mind up about whether or not we wanted to be a part of that world. Unsurprising, we all wanted to be, but mum and dad still insisted on keeping magic use in the house to a bare minimum and only agreed to getting a family owl when I was in third year and the three of us needed some way to keep in touch with our magical friends over the summer.

Despite the loving way that my mother and father discussed the differences in their worlds, I knew it was not something I was keen to have. After experiencing the magic of Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and everything else in the wizarding community, I hated when I had to go home for the summer and live without all the magical for three months. Staying with some of my friends for a couple of weeks was enough to keep me going through that period, but I was ready to get back into spells and potions and all the things I loved so much about magic.

After dad had found the "perfect parking space" (it was still a 10 minute walk from the station, which isn't fun when you have three large trunks and an owl to carry), we made our way to the station and to the entrance to the magical world, between platform 9 and 10.

Even though dad protested that he had no interest in the magical world, I could always see the excitement and amazement on his face when we crossed onto platform 9 3/4 and the gleaming red steam engine appeared in front of us once again. Mum always noticed it too and smiled sweetly at the look on his face every time, yet said nothing about it.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt myself return to the world where I belonged, my heart felt full and I was so happy to be here and heading back to Hogwarts. The platform was very busy as expected, I checked the clock and noticed that it read half past 10, half an hour until the train left.

Ali and Jack lifted all three of our trunks onto the train while I scanned the crowd for a sign of anyone I knew. I thought I saw my best friend, Sophie, with her parents just up ahead but the platform was so crowed I thought there was no point trying to make my way to her. Instead, I stayed with mum and dad as Ali and Jack returned.

"Alright you three, listen up," mum began, "I do not want to receive any letters regarding behaviour on the first week of term." She stared purposefully at Jack, he just grinned in response. Both mum and dad rolled their eyes, while Ali and I laughed at Jack's response.

"Seriously, please behave this year and make yourselves proud, because your father and I are incredibly proud of all of you." She smiled at us, "now of you go, have a good year and don't forget to write."

Ali and Jack hugged both mum and dad before going off to board the train.

"I'll miss you both." I said as I hugged dad and then mum, "enjoy the peace without us and we will see you at Christmas." Dad kissed my forehead and mum gave me one more hug before I too, turned and boarded the train. At the door, I turned and gave one final wave to my parents before heading down the train to find my friends.

It took less time than anticipated to find my friends sitting in a compartment together. Sophie was sitting with her back to the glass door and was talking amicably about something that involved lots of hand gestures. Her bright blonde hair looked exceptionally pale compared to her dark tan which was the result of a month away in Italy, the perks of having a father with a high up job in the ministry apparently.

Emily sat beside her with hazel eyes wide as she eagerly devoured everything Sophie was saying. Her curly black hair was tied back into a bun high on her head as per usual keeping her fair skinned face bright and open. She was already wearing her school uniform with her prefect badge pinned proudly to her chest.

Hannah was sitting across from the pair and appeared to be uninterested in what Sophie had to say, instead she was reading the Daily Prophet, the sports section I presumed from the pictures I could see of the players flying across the page on broomsticks on a sunny, yet cloudy, quidditch pitch. She tucked a stand of her shoulder length blonde hair behind her ear and stretched her long, toned legs across the compartment and rested them between Emily and Sophie and she flicked through the paper.

I slid open the compartment door and smiled widely as the others turned to look at me,

"Liv!" Sophie shouted in excitement "there you are, I have so much to tell you about Italy!" She exclaimed as she enveloped me in a very powerful hug considering the small size of her.

"Hi Soph, how are you?" I asked as I hugged her back before moving to hug Emily, "Hi Em, how was your summer?"

"Oh, it was good thanks, family trip to Scotland to see dad's family for a couple of weeks and of course interning at the ministry was fab!" She told me as I hugged her. Despite her being half Scottish you couldn't tell from the sound of her voice, except when she was being particularly authoritative and it often came out more strongly then. I moved to sit beside Hannah and hugged her before sitting down,

"I assume you spent all summer playing Quidditch from the look of your legs," I laughed and gestured to her tanned and muscular legs that lay across the compartment. She laughed and hugged me back before answering with,

"Well yes, I did spend a rather large portion of the summer outside training, Gryffindor need to win this year!" She exclaimed with a wild look in her eyes. I just laughed and nodded my head in agreement.

"So Sophie, tell me all about Italy then,"

"Well, it started when I got off the plane and this met boy, Rico…"

Hannah, Emily and I looked at each other and laughed, didn't all of Sophie's stories start similar to this?

After about 2 hours, Sophie seemed to have finally finished telling Hannah and I all about Rico, and Mason, and Antonio. Emily had left shortly after our departure from King's Cross to attend to her prefect duties and Sophie had talked non stop about all her adventures in Italy, not that I minded of course, but when the most exciting thing I had done all summer was go to Cornwall for a week of surfing I couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Hannah hadn't been paying much attention to what Sophie was saying, as usual, and instead focused on the Daily Prophet and their review of the recent Quidditch matches.

"So Liv, tell me all about your summer." Sophie finally said,

"Not much to tell really, I worked at a restaurant near my house for a couple of weeks, went surfing and stayed with Hannah and Em while you were away." I shrugged as I began tucking into the chocolate frogs I had just bought from the Honeydukes Express.

"So, no secret snogs that you haven't told me about?" She wriggled her eyebrows suggestively. I nearly choked on my frog.

"Not likely, have you seen me?" I snorted

"Yes, and I must say what a delightful sight you are!" Of course that would be the moment that Fred Weasley would happen to enter our carriage. I rolled my eyes at him and ignored his comment. Fred matched the typical description of most of the Weasley family, flaming red hair that definitely stood out in a crowd, dark and mischievous eyes that always looked like they were planning something and a tall and slender yet muscular figure that lent itself well to his position of beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Nice to see you too, Fred." I replied sarcastically as he sat across from me beside Sophie.

"Aw Livie, don't be like that. It's only the first day back and I don't want you to waste all your sassy comments on me this early on in the term." Beside Fred, Sophie snorted and replied with,

"Unlikely, that girl is never out of sassy comments."

"Correct," I said pointing to Sophie, "and you," I turned my gaze and finger to Fred "do not get to call me Livie, only my friends call me that and you are not my friend. It's Olivia to you."

"Wow, harsh." Laughed another voice from the compartment door. Of course, when is Fred Weasley ever not accompanied by his trustee sidekick, James Potter.

"James," I replied with a nod in his direction.

"Jones," he replied and nodded back at me. I rolled my eyes at his use of my second name, he knew that infuriated me. Despite being half-Weasley, James could not look anymore different from his cousin. His jet black hair contrasted fiercely with Fred's auburn hair, and stuck up in all directions making it constantly look like he had just rolled out of bed, and his eyes were lighter than Fred's but not by much, instead they looked a deep brown rather than black.

"Anyway, back to the topic of discussion, who has dear Livie been snogging this summer?" Fred asked with an expression of innocence. Once again ignoring Fred's comment I changed the topic of conservation to some less embarrassing and intrusive,

"So, how are Gryffindor's chances of winning Quidditch cup this year?" I asked

"Like there is any competition!"

"Have you seen who the Slytherin captain is?"

"We're the best we've ever been!"

Mmh, that seemed to work quite effectively. With Hannah, Fred and James all being on the Quidditch team I knew some conversation about Quidditch would distract them from my disastrous love life.

The conversation continued along similar lines until James and Fred left our compartment some while later, claiming they had to talk to their cousins. Hannah, Sophie and I all changed into our robes so we were ready for our arrival at Hogwarts and discussed the upcoming year.

As much as I enjoy the train ride to Hogwarts, it has to be one of the longest journeys I have experienced, unsure whether that was due to the distance we travelled or the excitement I felt about returning to my favourite place in the world. But, eventually the train began to slow as we pulled into Hogsmeade station. The three of us boarded the carriages to the castle along with some 5th years, Emily was responsible for ensuring everyone got off the train safety and said she would meet us there.

"I cannot believe that we are in sixth year, I feel so old," Sophie said to Hannah and I as we rode to the castle.

"Tell me about it, I remember what felt like yesterday when we all met at the welcome feast for the first time," Hannah replied as she smiled at us.

"Who would have thought that we would be able to put up with each other for this long?" I laughed, "certainly not me, I thought that Sophie would have talked our ears off by now!"

"Come off it, I don't talk that much!" Sophie protested, Hannah and I just laughed at her. Eventually Sophie gave up her pouting and joined in.

* * *

The welcome feast started pretty much the same as ever, Professor McGongall gave her inspiring yet no-nonsense speech to welcome everyone back, the first years had been sorted into their houses and the house elves had prepared an incredible feast that tasted even better than it looked. Throughout the feast I caught up with my fellow Gryffindor classmates and even met some of the new first years and reassured them that they would soon feel at home in the big castle.

The welcome feast was one of my favourite meals at Hogwarts (Christmas dinner was, of course, the best), not only because of the food, but the excited, nervous, anticipating atmosphere really contributed to the feeling of being back. I felt so happy and content that almost nothing could spoil my mood; almost nothing.

All of a sudden, there seemed to be some commotion coming from the Slytherin table, this then spread to the Hufflepuffs and then to the Ravenclaw's. I locked eyes with Ali and mouthed to ask what was going on, he just shrugged his shoulders and looked confused. Unfortunately, my question was answered when half of the Slytherin table suddenly transformed into big, round, giant looking blueberries. That was the only way to describe it. Their faces and bodies had turned a shade of purple-blue and they had swollen into a giant ball shape with their arms poking out pathetically at the side. The same happened for the rest of the Slytherin's, and then the Hufflepuff's, and then the Ravenclaw's. The great hall could just about fit everyone in when we were normal size, but when three quarters of the population had at least doubled in size and were rolling uncontrollably around the hall there was definitely not enough space for us all in the hall. There was a muddle of panic from the blueberry-looking people, laughter from the relieved Gryffindors and anger from the majority of the teaching staff.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, everyone seemed to deflate and return to normal size and colour. While the Gryffindors continued to laugh at the distress of the other houses, the now normal looking students seemed to be both confused and angry about what had just happened.

Finally, with a bang, fireworks shot across the enchanted sky leaving a message that read:

 _'Welcome back to Hogwarts, enjoy this year; we know we will! - Gryffindor'_

That certainly caused an outburst of confusion from the students, there was a loud chattering of people discussing what had just happened and some students, particularly the first years, looking sick about it. I glanced down the table to who I suspected the culprits were, Fred and James, who were sitting with some of their family members: Roxanne, Lily and Hugo. The pair looked particularly smug and pleased with themselves as the other three couldn't contain their laughter.

The hall fell to a sudden hush as Professor McGonagall stood up to address the students,

"While I appreciate the need for a good natured welcome back to the school, targeted pranks will not be tolerated under my watch. Gryffindor will received minus 50 points and I expect the student or students responsible to come to my office by the end of the week or there will be further consequences." She looked cooly up and down the Gryffindor table, lingering for slightly too long to be unnoticed at the Potter/Weasley family. "Prefects, please escort the first years to your common room, all other students should follow shortly."

With that she returned to her seat and the prefects from each house stood to usher the first years out of the hall. The previously elated Gryffindor students, now looked downcast and miserable, with many of them muttering to each other annoyed.

"Well, that certainly made an interesting start to the year," Sophie commented with a smile, she obviously wasn't bothered about losing the house points.

"Mmh, shame about the points though," I replied, "you would think that they would have done something a bit better on the first day back. Do you remember last year? They stopped the staircases from moving so nobody could get to their common rooms and some people were even stuck on the landings!"

"Ah, just you wait Livie," Fred commented as he walked past where we sat, "I hear there is more to come."

"Oh and you would know?" Hannah asked with a raised eyebrow and smirk on her face. Fred just laughed and winked as he and James left the hall laughing.

I turned back to my friends with eyes wide,

"You don't think they'll do anything too dangerous, do you?" I asked hesitantly,

"No, they might be stupid and idiotic, but they aren't seriously harmful." Hannah replied with a nod.

The three of us rose from our seats and headed to the Gryffindor common room along with the other students. Emily had already told us the common room password, _Dulce Domum_ , so we passed it around to the unknowing students and made our way up to our room out of the way of the students discussing what had just happened.

Emily was already in the room when we had arrived and greeted us with a tight smile,

"What's up Em?" I asked when I noticed her expression,

"Ugh, I'm just so annoyed at whoever pulled that prank," she explained, "was that pathetic prank really worth losing all those points before term even started? I swear if they don't come forward there will be hell to pay!" Ah, there was that slight Scottish accent. While Emily was normally quiet and kept to herself, she was a stickler for the rules and equality and wasn't afraid to tell someone off when they were being rude or disrespectful. Honestly, if she wasn't head girl next year I would be shocked.

"Yeah, it wasn't even that good, I'm surprised considering the boys normally have reasonably good pranks but that one just wasn't." Commented Hannah, I turned to look at her,

"You really think it was them?" I asked,

"You don't?" She replied with raised eyebrows, "maybe it wasn't but I'm sure Fred and James looked pretty happy with themselves as they left the hall." I just nodded in agreement and moved to my bed to begin unpacking.

A short while later we were joined by our final two roommates, Karen French and Holly Aldridge. While I didn't have any problem with Holly, she was a relatively nice and polite girl who I got on with enough to share a room, the same could not be said for Karen. We had been on reasonably good terms until third year, when I accidentally dropped my cauldron over her in potions and it caused the bottom of her robes to disintegrate, leaving her standing with nothing covering the bottom half of her body expect her underwear. From then on we just didn't see eye to eye and it has only became worse over time, she now acts like I murdered her cat or something, not just made a harmless mistake.

Holly and Emily are reasonably good friends as they both excel in school work and bond over that, but Karen doesn't speak much to any of us and instead hangs about more with the girls in seventh year. Not that any of us mind that.

"Hi everyone! Did you all have a nice summer?" Holly asked cheerily as they entered the room. Sophie, Hannah and I all smiled back and nodded in reply, Emily answered for us;

"We did thank you, did you two?" Always polite and inclusive Emily was.

"We did, thanks!" Holly replied for the two of them, "I hear you interned at the ministry this summer?"

"Oh yes I did, it was amazing." Emily and Holly continued to chat about their summers as Karen moved to her bed avoiding looking at any of us.

The three of us just rolled our eyes and continued to pack our bags away.

"Are you looking forward to classes tomorrow?" I asked Sophie, much later, when it was only the two of us left up. Hannah always goes to bed early as she is used to waking up early for Quidditch practice, Emily and Holly also try to get an early night so they are ready for the first day of classes in the morning and as Karen doesn't speak to us she closes the drapes around her bed relatively early.

"I don't know, I still haven't decided on everything that I want to do this year." She explained, "I did better than I thought I would in my O.W.L.s so I can take some subjects that I had considered dropping, but I'm unsure yet. What about you?" She asked.

"Honestly? I can't wait. Not having done any magic for three months, I've been having withdrawal symptoms," I laughed quietly. Sophie's bed was directly beside the door on the left next to Hannah's while mine was the second from the right beside Emily's, Karen and Holly's bed were in-between mine and Hannah's. This was often problematic as it was typically Sophie and I that were the ones up late chatting and we occasionally forgot the others were sleeping and spoke too loudly.

"Yeah I know what you mean," she smiled, "I'm glad to be back too!"

"Okay, we should get some sleep before classes tomorrow," I said.

Sophie nodded and agreed. We drew the draping around our bed and headed off to sleep in our first night back in sixth year.

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Thank you all for reading! Any thoughts, comments, criticism are welcome. As I said, hopefully getting the next chapter up this week, but we will see!


	2. Chapter 2: Unexpected

**Disclaimer:** Characters and Universe property of J.K. Rowling.

A/N: I decided to post this chapter so soon to give you more context into this world and the characters. Please don't expect this in the future! Anyway, hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.

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 _Chapter 2: Unexpected_

The next morning, I woke up just as the sun was starting to rise outside; I always kept my drapes slightly parted by the window so the rising sun would wake me up naturally. I looked to the clock on my beside table, _6:23am_. I briefly closed my eyes again before sitting up in bed and stretching my arms over my head.

While I typically didn't get us this early, I need to shower before breakfast and it's always good to give yourself extra time on the first day. To my surprise, when I opened the drapes I found that no one else was awake, I assumed Emily would already be up but maybe she was giving herself until half past like usual. I wondered into the bathroom wiping the sleep away from my eyes and turned the shower on before looking in the mirror.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!" I screamed at my reflection. That would have definitely woken the rest of the room up. Hannah came running into the bathroom to see me,

"What's going ooooh, my god. Your face!" She exclaimed as she pointed at me.

I turned to look at her and my eyes widened even more, if that was possible. I screamed again as I saw her. Confused she turned to the mirror and took in her face, it was exactly the same as mine.

The half red and half gold colour of our faces was definitely a sight for this time in the morning. We heard the others in the room stirring and ran through to see them.

"Oh my god, what has happened to you guys?!" Emily looked concerned at our faces,

"It's not just us Em, it's you too!" I exclaimed pointing at her face, "And Holly and Karen." I added as I turned and saw that their faces too were coloured half red and half golden.

"What'sa going on?" Sophie muttered as she rose from her bed, always the last to everything. She stopped short when she saw what was going on. "Ummm, does someone want to confess to sleep-face painting?"

"Okay, very funny everyone, but seriously, who did this?" Emily asked us. We all looked around at each other bewildered, nobody confessing anything.

Then, Suzie Nicol from the fifth year dorm above us came bursting into our room, her face was also coloured with the Gryffindor colours.

"Oh good, it's not just us!" She exclaimed as she threw our door open, "it doesn't wash off and we were all concerned that someone had just played a horrible prank on all of us!"

With Suzie standing in the doorway, we could hear some commotion coming from downstairs. Emily and I locked eyes and she pushed passed Suzie and headed downstairs followed by me, then Hannah, then Holly. When we arrived in the common room we saw that every Gryffindor, from first to seventh year, had the same colourings on their face.

As soon as Hannah and I saw everyone we burst into laughter, Emily and Holly on the other hand looked slightly concerned. The first years were looking panicked, but everyone else in the house had slowly began to realise what was happening and began to relax and laugh about it too. Eventually, when nobody seemed bothered about the colour of their faces, Emily calmed down and she too began to smile slightly at the baffling sight before us.

I glanced around the room and noticed that everyone seemed to laughing with each other and the first years were now positively beaming with pride at their new coloured faces; that made me smile even more. The four of us returned to our room and explained the situation to Karen and Sophie, who was still lying in bed obviously unfazed by the events currently taking place.

I returned to my shower and, despite Suzie's comment, tried to scrub the colours off my face. It was unsurprisingly no good but I didn't mind too much anymore. After washing and brushing through my hair, I turned the shower off and dried my body before returning to my chest to get dressed and ready for breakfast. Emily, Hannah and Holly were now almost fully dressed and ready to go, Karen pushed passed me to get in the shower as I exited muttering something under her breath, I ignored her and started to get dressed while Hannah attempted to wake Sophie.

"I'm heading down now as I need to help give out timetables," Emily explained as she grabbed her backs and exited with a wave.

Hannah and I dragged Sophie out of her bed and forced her into her uniform shortly after, and headed down to get some food. As we walked down the hallways to the Great Hall, we noticed that it was not only Gryffindor house that had unusual coloured faces, but Ravenclaw were sporting half blue and half bronze faces, Slytherin had half green and half silver faces and when we walked into the hall we noted Hufflepuff's half yellow, half black faces.

While it was initially distressing, it was actually very funny and a nice way to welcome the first years and make all the houses feel more like a family. I wondered if the teacher's would be too bothered by what was happening, but I could swear that I saw Professor McGonagall actually smile as she observed the room before her.

The three of us sat down to eat while the other students around us chatted about their first day of subjects. I grabbed two pieces of toast with raspberry jam, plain yoghurt and some honey and dished it onto my plate, Hannah had two bananas and porridge and Sophie had some chocolate chip pancakes on her plate. I always wondered how someone could eat so much, yet stay and small and thin as Sophie was, it wasn't like she played Quidditch either. To my left, I saw Professor Longbottom approaching us with our new timetables in hand.

"So Sophie Halloway," he began, "are you still planning on taking the following subjects this year: Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, History of Magic, Divination, Muggle Studies and Herbology? Your O.W.L. results were more than acceptable for entry into these classes." He looked to her to comment,

"Actually sir, I was thinking about dropping Divination and History of Magic and taking something else instead, what do you suggest?" Sophie replied.

"Well, it all depends on what you want to do after Hogwarts as I explained last year, are you still planning on a career in journalism?" He asked.

"I don't think so, I was thinking about taking Charms and Transfiguration instead, I think they will be more useful in the long run." He looked to another sheet of parchment he held in his hand.

"Again, your results from your O.W.L.s are sufficient for N.E.W.T. level classes if that is what you wish?" He raised his eyebrows at her, she nodded before he tapped her timetable and rearranged it to suit her change in subjects.

Professor Longbottom then went through the same process with Hannah and myself until we had sorted our subjects for the upcoming years. Hannah had decided on: Transfiguration, Herbology, Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes and Defence Against the Dark Arts, and I had chosen: Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Alchemy and Herbology.

"I thought you hated Transfiguration?" Hannah asked Sophie confused,

"Well, I hated it because I thought I was really bad at it. But it turns out I'm not and I did always think it was interesting, so why not give it a try." She shrugged as she continued eating her pancakes. Hannah and I just looked at each other and shrugged.

"What have you got first?" I asked Hannah,

"Mmh, Ancient Runes," she answered taking a bite of her banana, "what about you?"

"I have Charms, assuming you do too Soph?" I asked, she nodded.

Emily then rejoined the group and loaded her bowl with some cornflakes and milk,

"Did you all get your timetables sorted?" She asked the group. We all nodded and I passed her mine over so she could see what my subjects were. "Oh yes, it looks like we have Transfiguration and D.A.D.A. together!"

"Hannah and I are with you two as well," Sophie said as she compared all four of our timetables, "Olivia, you and I are together for pretty much everything too!" She smiled at me.

"Are you? I thought you weren't taking Transfiguration or Charms?" Emily asked confused.

"I wasn't planning on," Sophie replied, turning back to her breakfast, "but I scrapped the journalist idea and took those subjects instead."

"Fair enough." Emily replied as she handed us back our timetables.

"Did McGonagall say anything to you about the face paints?" I quizzed Emily, as prefect she was the most likely to know anything that had gone on with the professors.

"She did, at first I think she was a little mad about the whole thing, but then came round to the idea and actually though it was very clever. She was certainly impressed by how it was done, she can't exactly figure out how someone managed to paint all the students faces overnight." Emily commented.

I was slightly shocked at this, McGonagall is one of the eldest and most knowledgable professors at the school, it must have taken some clever thinking and magical ability to impress her. I silently commended the perpetrators of the prank.

After we had finished our breakfast, Sophie and I headed off to Charms while Hannah went to Ancient Runes and Emily left for History of Magic. Charms was by far my favourite class at Hogwarts and definitely the one I preformed best in; it was the only O.W.L that I got an 'Outstanding' in. Professor Flitwick was also one of my favourite teachers, despite being over 70 years old, he was very kind natured and enthusiastic about the subject which I enjoyed. We began the lesson by revising some of our charms from last year, including the silencing charm; across the class we all split off into pairs and began trying to silence each other.

* * *

The rest of the lessons throughout the day were comparatively similar, the teachers were focusing on welcoming everyone back to the subject by revising work from previous years, it was a nice and relaxed first day back. By the time the end of classes came, our faces had returned to a normal colour and I was exhausted as left my last class of the day: Alchemy, and headed to the Great Hall for dinner.

As this was a new subject to me this year, I wasn't used to the area of Hogwarts that these classes were held. I was walking along an unfamiliar corridor when I heard someone speaking just round the corner,

"Aw, are the two wittle first years lost?" Asked a voice in a patronising tone, "What do you think Alex, should we help them or just leave them standing here?"

Another voice spoke up with just as much superiority in his voice,

"Hah! Fat chance, stupid children shouldn't be near this part of the castle anyway, leave them to it, might as well take their wands as well since they seem so dim-witted that they shouldn't even be allowed them!"

I was outraged at what I was hearing, typically when something like this happened, I was with Emily and she would deal with it, but Emily wasn't here and there was not a chance that I was going to stand back and let this happen.

I rounded the corner and saw two fifth year Slytherin's leering over two first year Ravenclaw's that looked petrified.

"Okay boys, that's enough. Leave them alone," I was surprised I actually sounded slightly intimidating. The fifth years turned their attention to me and just smirked unappealingly,

"Or what? What are you going to do?" The slightly taller one asked,

"I'll report you to the head of your house and you'll no doubt be pulled up for this." I replied in my most threatening voice. Instead of retreating, my words seemed to spur them on and they now approached me instead of the first years. I gestured to the first years to run along and they did so looking gratefully at me.

"Wow, I'm so scared, aren't you Ralf?" The taller one again mocked,

"Absolutely petrified," Ralf replied, "some Gryffindor girl thinks she can actually threaten us, it's incredibly scary that she thinks she can get away with that."

From the corner of my eye I could see the taller one, who I now assumed was Alex, holding his wand in his hand and tapping it slightly against his leg. It happened to be at this moment that all of my Gryffindor courage evaporated and I started to panic. I had never been in a fight before, I had absolutely no idea what to do, and apart from the brief duelling practice that we got in second year I had never been in a real life duel.

Before I even had a moment to think about what was going to happen next, Ralf lifted up his right arm and shouted,

"Locomotor Wibbly!"

I wasn't quite sure how, but I unconsciously grabbed my wand from the pocket of my robes as I dodged the jelly-legs curse that was just thrown at me. I lifted my arm and pointed my wand at Ralf before shouting,

"Expelliarmus!" With that, Ralf's wand flew out of his hand and I grabbed it with my left. Alex took that moment of vulnerability to throw a stunning spell that hit me straight in the chest and I was thrown back a couple of feet, landing painfully on my back. Before I was able to return to my feet, I heard another voice shouting from above me,

"Petrificus Totalus!" I heard a thud as the spell hit its target, "don't even think about moving." The voice came again, I looked up and saw James Potter approaching with his wand still pointed at Ralf.

He looked down to me and reached out his hand, I took it gratefully and returned to my feet before brushing my robes down. I saw Alex lying on the floor, victim of the full body-bind curse, and Ralf standing unarmed above him.

Just then, the two first year students from earlier returned, but not alone. Professor Slughorn was with the pair as they approached James and I standing with Alex and Ralf.

"Well, what on earth is going on here?" Slughorn asked with raised eyebrows towards James and I.

"Professor, I can explain," I started, but he cut across me with a look.

"I think I can establish what has gone on from the scene before me and what I have been told." He gestured to the first years besides him, "Warlock, Heether, you will go directly to my office and await me there," he spoke directly to them as he waved his wand and Alex was able to move again.

"As for you two," he turned his attention back to James and I, "while I appreciate that you may have been acting in defence of the first years; duelling in the corridors is simply not acceptable. You will both attend detention tonight with me in the dungeons, 7pm sharp." He turned and walked away with the first years at his heels. They turned and smiled thankfully to me before following Slughorn down the corridor.

"Are you okay?" James asked as he turned towards me. All of a sudden, a surge of anger arose in me,

"I didn't need your help, I was perfectly capable of handling that situation myself!" I shouted in James' face. He obviously wasn't expecting that and momentarily raised his eyebrows at me before frowning,

"Really? Because from where I was standing it looked like you were just about to get your ass handed to you."

I scoffed at him,

"Whatever. I was in control and I don't need some someone coming along to 'save me', I was perfectly fine," I said to him. I honestly had no idea why I was so angry and why I was spurting these lies at him, I was so obviously not okay by myself.

He just laughed and shook his head at me,

"Whatever Jones, keeping telling yourself that. See you in detention," he sneered at me as he turned and walked off along the corridor.

I turned on my heel and walked in the opposite direction until I found a corridor that I vaguely recognised. I was still reeling with anger as I entered the Great Hall and sat down beside Emily, Hannah and Sophie.

They could apparently sense my anger as I saw the three of them exchange looks before Emily tentatively asked,

"Liv, is everything okay?"

I exhaled as I loaded some potatoes onto my plate; apparently fighting with Slytherin's and shouting at James Potter makes you hungry.

"I just got detention because I saved some stupid first years getting bullied by some moronic Slytherin's, and James Potter had to save me from ending up in the hospital wing." I explained with a huff.

That puzzled them. I could see Hannah frowning at Sophie and Emily looking concerned, but honestly I didn't have the energy to care what they thought.

"Erm, do you wanna talk about what happened?" Sophie asked tentatively as she placed a hand on my arm.

So, I retold the whole story of what had happened in the corridor, ending with what I had shouted at James. They were obviously shocked at what I had just said and didn't quite know what to say to comfort me,

"It's okay, at least it's only detention," Emily tried, I just rolled my eyes at her.

"Really Em? You've never had a detention in your life, and you're telling me that it's 'only detention'." I dismissed her, "I'm not even mad about the detention, I'm mad that if James freaking Potter hadn't come along at that moment, things might've ended up a lot worse."

And honestly that was what I was so mad about, I didn't want to be thought of as some damsel in distress that needing someone to get them out of difficult situations, I wanted to be my own knight in shinning armour.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore, can we please discuss something else?" I pleaded with the group, Hannah smiled kindly at me,

"Of course, how were your classes?" She asked me. I happily answered and thought nothing about the event that had just taken place for this rest of dinner.

At quarter to 7 that night, I left the Gryffindor common room and began the walk to the dungeons to meet Professor Slughorn for my detention. I had left the girls working on classwork in front of the fire and wished I could have stayed with them, but unfortunately not. They wished me luck as I left and warned me about arguing with James Potter again.

My footsteps echoed along the silent and empty hallway as I approached the dungeons, I opened the door into the classroom and saw Professor Slughorn sitting behind his desk, to my surprise James was sitting in the front row; both turned around at my entrance.

"Good Evening, Miss Jones," said Slughorn, "please take a seat beside Mr Potter."

I moved across the classroom and sat beside James leaving a seat in between us, I made a point not to look at him as I still hadn't spoken to him since I shouted at him earlier.

"The first years had their first potions lesson today and I usually begin the term with making Wiggenweld potion. Flobberworm mucus is a crucial ingredient in that potion, you may remember that it is a particularly vicious mucus that sticks to the cauldron's. You will be cleaning them all tonight," he gestured to the pile of cauldrons over on the bench at the side. There looked to be about 50 or so cauldrons. I internally groaned, we would likely be here all night.

"I have some work to attend to for now, but it shouldn't take me too long," Slughorn started, "I expect you to stay until all the cauldrons are cleaned, no matter how long it takes." He added.

James and I briefly glanced at each other before standing up and walking over to the pile of cauldron's to get started. We stood in silence for half an hour just cleaning the cauldron's before Slughorn stated that he was leaving and that we were to finish and then leave. As he left the classroom, I couldn't contain the guilt I was feeling along longer,

"I'm so sorry for shouting at you earlier!" I shouted, again, at James. "I honestly don't know what came over me, I seriously couldn't have handled that by myself so thank you." I turned to look at him to gauge his reaction.

He just smirked and shook his head at me,

"Jones, you don't need to apologise. I get it, you were embarrassed, it's not a problem."

"What?! I was not!" I shouted at him. Embarrassed? Oh, hell no. I was not embarrassed in the slightest.

"Really?" He asked as he quirked his left eyebrow upwards,

"I…" I frowned, and thought for a second; maybe I was embarrassed. Embarrassed that I couldn't defend myself and that I needed someone's help. James noticed the thoughtful expression on my face and just smirked.

"Yeah, I thought so," he said turning back to the cauldron's, "well come on then, I don't wanna be standing here cleaning all night, as much as I enjoy your company."

There was the James I knew, we continued cleaning and chatted as we worked. We discussed what we had done over the summer, what subjects we were taking this year, James talked about Quidditch. Despite having known each other for 5 years, it was crazy how little we knew about each other.

"So, my sister thought it would be a good idea to have a blindfolded race around The Burrow on brooms and it was a disaster!" He laughed, "Fred crashed into a bush, Al flew into the garden shed and Rose collided with my Uncle Ron and both went flying across the garden."

We were both laughing so much we couldn't talk for a good 2 minutes. After I had regained my breathe, I asked,

"What's The Burrow?" Assuming it to be some town or statue that I just hadn't heard of.

"Oh, it's my grandparents house," he explained, "Mum and all her brothers grew up there and we spend some time there during the summer with all my cousins and the rest of my family."

"It must be nice to have a big family, I've always wanted to have adventures with cousins, shame I only have two and they live in Wales so we don't get to see them often," I replied.

"What about your brothers, you have two right? I know Jack obviously, through Quidditch, not sure about your other one though."

"Ali, he's in the year above us. We are close but we're quite different so don't really enjoy the same things." I said, "Ali is really academic and prefers to read or work during the holidays, Jack just loves Quidditch and just wants to play that all the time, or computer games."

James looked puzzled, "What?"

"Oh, right sorry, muggle thing. You know what a computer is, right?" I asked and he nodded, "well, you can play games on it, like fighting games or sporting games. Anyway, Jack likes to play them and I don't really have an interest in that sort of thing."

"That's quite sad, actually," James said after a minute. I looked over at him and laughed slightly,

"Yes, it is." I agreed.

Eventually we had gotten to the bottom of the pile of cauldron's. I looked at my watch and groaned, _1:04am_ ,

"It's past-one," I explained when James looked at me, "we have to be up in six hours, ugh."

"Well c'mon then," he smiled, "better get back so you can get some beauty sleep, god knows you need it." He just laughed at me and I scowled at him.

We slowly began making our way back to Gryffindor tower along the dark and empty corridors. As we were approaching the portrait of the fat lady sleeping in her frame, I saw a figure sitting just below her, our approaching footsteps made the figure look up from the parchment she held in her hand.

"Emelia?" James asked the figure, sounding slightly confused, the girl smiled and stood up as James approached her.

"Hi!" She said as she threw her arms around him. He wrapped his arms around her waist for a moment before pulling back and asking,

"What are you doing here?"

"I thought I would surprise you after your detention, which I'm sure was a nightmare with that Olivia girl after she shouted at you.

Oh. This was awkward. I cleared my throat slight to make this girl aware of my presence just behind James. She looked past his shoulder and locked eyes with me,

"Oh, I didn't see you standing there. I'm Emelia," she said as she moved past James and stuck out her hand for me to shake.

"Olivia," I replied taking her hand, "the one that shouted at him." I explained. At least she had the decency to look slightly embarrassed at that.

"Sorry about that, I didn't mean anything by it."

I nodded my head in understanding,

"It's fine, I was out of order earlier so can understand," I reasoned with her. She smiled and turned to James,

"Are you up for a walk before bed?" She asked James with eyebrows raised.

"Yeah of course," he replied before turning to me, "I'll see you later, yeah?"

"Yeah sure, enjoy." I said as I walked past them and up to the fat lady, luckily she had awoken by now after listening into our conversation. She liked to have all the gossip before any of the other paintings. "Dulce Domum," I muttered to her and she opened the door accordingly, not before mumbling something about students being out at this hour on a school night.

No one was sitting in the common room as I walked in so I just walked straight up to the dormitory. I had expected some of the girls, Sophie at least, to be up when I returned; but they were not. So, I just changed for bed and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow; it had been a thoroughly exhausting first day back at Hogwarts.


End file.
